posted
I'm finding that my stories are often far more event-driven than character-driven. What I mean is, instead of my protagonist having to make an important decision, I keep simply throwing things at him that force him to react one way (emotionally as much as in action).
The story I'm writing now is about my protagonist's transformation, but even in writing this, I find I'm using events he encounters to make him become what I want him to be in the end, instead of letting him struggle through it as much internally, which is more of what I want.
Will this weaken the power of the change that he goes through? How do I come to _know_ my character well enough to get into his mind better as he undergoes his transformation? I don't want him to be weak; I want him to make hard decisions, rather than be forced to act how I want him to act. It seems (to look at OSC's MICE quotient) that I'm writing more of an event story rather than character story, but if the story's about a character's transformation, shouldn't it be more of a character story?
Have any of you struggled with this sort of thing? How can I improve? (It seems to me it really has a lot to do with how well I know my character, and maybe I don't know him as well as I should yet.)
quote:I keep simply throwing things at him that force him to react one way...
But is that really true? Does your character never have any choice about what to do, how to react to the events you throw at him?
quote:The story I'm writing now is about my protagonist's transformation, but even in writing this, I find I'm using events he encounters to make him become what I want him to be in the end, instead of letting him struggle through it as much internally, which is more of what I want. ... I want him to make hard decisions, rather than be forced to act how I want him to act.
As the author, you have the right to put your character in whatever situations you want, in order to get the character to become the character you want. You're allowed to push the character into becoming what you want. But for the story to work, you need to show us the character's choices in a believable manner. Let us understand why the events lead him to choose to do what he does. That way, we will believe the transformation.
Posts: 1517 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Going back to another thread, I would just like to say that TheoPhileo and I are probably the same person.
Well, no, but I am going through the EXACT same thing.
quote:Will this weaken the power of the change that he goes through?
YES!!! I hate to have to tell you this, but it's just the way it is. I have known this at some level for a long time, but only recently realized that it applied to me. I have a story that has quite a few main characters (4 important point of view characters), and I noticed when I had someone reading this that he liked all but my main main character. The chapters from her point of view were criticized more strongly and had the greatest suggestions for change. My father said, "My hero doesn't act like that!" Well, I wrote on, certain of my own correctness. In real life we are shaped by things that happen to us, after all, and in good time she'll decide she's had enough.
Character stories (using the MICE question you asked about) begin when the character decides to make a change, NOT BEFORE! And this, fellow struggler, was the key! Once that story starts, or perhaps in the first chapter, that character must become an active force in his or her own life, working to shape his own destiny.
HE DOES NOT ALWAYS HAVE TO SUCCEED! This is another thing I realized. I've reworked things (in an outline at the moment) so that my main character still falls down again and again throughout the first half of the novel, but she stood up again and again and TRIED to shape her own life and destiny and wuold not take no for an answer!
How can you get to know your character better? Be thorough! I recently used the some rather extensive character dossiers that I thought I could post here but turned out to be only available through a password protected site. Oh well, there are others. I found, even as I complained about how stupid it was to recrod my character's jaw structure, that I was actually learning quite a lot! I recommend doing these quickly, and going back to fill in blanks later. It will take some time (think hours) but at the end you should have a walking, talking individual with a mind of his/her own rather than a puppet whose strings you control.
Another thing: reworking things so that your hero takes an active role may not be as difficult as you think. I stressed about this for a while, but I discovered that the plotline did not even have to change much for the hero to be, well, heroic. Part of the story, for example, is that her mother hates her and makes her life difficult and part of her growth is that she's not going to take it anymore! Well, I had her scoffing off her mother in chapter 12! Yikes, who needs to see example after example of her mother being mean before she stands up for herself? Take my word for it, her mother was mean and though before she cried and became quite upset that she couldn't make her mom happy she's now not taking it anymore. Actually, I'm having her epiphany come to her in chapter 2 (she doesn't appear in chapter 1 or I'd do it then)...and from there on out you see her standing up for herself and trying to make a difference. Does she automatically succeed? Nope. Her mother still rattles her, but she's trying.
So that's my example....I hope I've helped.
[This message has been edited by Christine (edited March 31, 2004).]
posted
I read Eric's post after my own and felt the need to clarify something. I'm not disagreeing with his take on things at all. Actually, I thinkw e just each read something different out of the original post.
Events will happen to your characters, but then they need to actively make choices and be a force for change, not simply react to those events. Not every event will be planned by the character, either purposely or on mistake. Sometimes "...and now for osmehting completely different!" So just thought I'd clarify that. Make your hero an active force for change by having him act rather than simply react to the events that transpire.
posted
I have one character that is a force for change, but the changes end up being in the opposite direction from what she thought they would be. I have another character that is very much not a force for change, nor is he interested in remaining the same.
Both characters change...but the changes are driven by circumstances. Neither character is on some kind of "self improvement" journey (though one character wants to be improving herself in a particular direction--it just so happens that circumstances are taking her away from her goal).
If the reason that events happen in your story is to impact the characters, then you have a character story. If the reason that the characters exist is to participate in certain events, then you have an event story. If there aren't any events happening that are beyond your characters' control, then you don't have a story at all.
Of course your character can seek out events that will make him into the kind of character he is trying to become. But when in your life have you ever had an interesting story occur because you sought out an event to help you with some particular bit of character development and everything went the way you planned it?
"I went to the dojo so I could build up my kendo skills." (not really, this is a fake story) "Once there, I stretched for twenty minutes, then I took my practice wooden sword and performed ten katas, first slowly and then at full speed. I then took my sparring sword and faced off against Reggie and Park in sequence. After that we had a quick free-for-all, just for fun. After three hours, I had raised my melee combat score by 1.3%!"
See...this is not a story. This is boring. This is a character that fully controls all the action in the story to move forward his own character development. A story has other forces than the protagonist at work.
Still, the story where events just happen to a hapless victim are no better. You need both. You need a character that reacts proactively (this is not an oxymoron, I shall explain), seeing the event, not as hapless Godzilla Chow characters see it, but through the lens of that character's unique goals and abilities.
When the random attack by masked men occurs, your character doesn't hide under the table, but negotiates or fights back or something. The character doesn't control all the events, but does control his own responses.
posted
No worries, Christine. I didn't see yours as contradicting mine.
I think you touched on an important point: the character should be (or at least, should become) active, rather than merely reactive.
Even if your plot consists of your character encountering one event after another that the character cannot control, the choice of how to deal with those events still remains.
One of the most gripping non-fiction books I have read is Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Shackleton's expidition to cross Antartica never even reaches the continent. Measured against the goal of the expedition, it was a complete failure. The ship is stuck in the icepack for months, then crushed. The crew escapes onto the ice, and they face one thing after another. In one sense, everything they do is a reaction to the events that occur. But it is because of the actions they choose to take that they end up surviving. They are actively trying to control their fate, not passively giving in to it.
UPDATE: I see Survivor has made essentially the same point.
[This message has been edited by EricJamesStone (edited March 31, 2004).]
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